Divine Divas: Feminist Studies of Operatic Females

Opera’s biggest stars are and always have been women. The headliners and the titles are most often female, like Renee Fleming and Carmen. Carmen, Bizet’s classic work about a strong-willed Gypsy woman who refuses to bow to male control, is one of the most accessible standards of the operatic repertoire, which makes it an ideal starting place for a feminist analysis of opera. The titular woman is the ideal representation of a strong female character, which makes her delightful to study in a feminist context. However, the opera itself is not. This paper looks at the ways that Bizet’s work is and is not positive and sympathetic toward women. This analysis is performed in the context of feminist literary criticism, as well as musical and operatic criticism with feminist influences. This discussion is particularly important due to the fact that feminist criticism came so late to the discipline of music, though the field has grown quickly. Carmen can be used as a touchstone for an analysis and extended to many female-lead classics of the opera repertoire.